The Nightmares of Gwen Cooper
by LoveInEveryMoment
Summary: Gwen Cooper often has nightmares about Captain Jack Harkness returning to visit her, and they nearly all end in some horrific event with a mysterious blood thirsty alien. But what happens when the man of her dreams suddenly turns up claiming that a nightmare-like alien is searching for her and her family? And what will Rhys do when he over hears Gwen confessing her love for Jack?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This is my first proper fanfiction, so if it's not that good I do apologise. Reviews are appreciated and any constructive criticism is very appreciated. I would love to know what you think of my fanfiction and how I could improve it. :)

This story is set a few months before the Miracle Day series.

This chapter is written from Gwen's perspective for added effect, but the other chapters won't be written in this way (although there might be a few diary-like chapters later on, I haven't quite decided yet.)

By the way, I apologise for this being quite a short chapter! I promise the following chapters will be much longer!

**Spoilers:** Contains a few spoilers from the end of series 2 and series 3 (Children of the Earth) of Torchwood. You have been warned!

**Pairing:** This is mainly going to be a Gwen x Jack story, so if you're not into this pairing then this probably isn't for you.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Torchwood or any of the characters in Torchwood. If I did, Jack and Gwen would have got together by the start of Series 2, and (SPOILERS COMING UP!) Ianto, Toshiko and Owen would still be alive! Also, I would have had several dinner dates with each of the characters and probably married half of them to! ;D

* * *

I was lying on the sandy beach just outside my home in a deep red pool of my own blood, Captain Jack Harkness kneeling by my side.

"It's going to be okay, Gwen. It's going to be okay." he whispered to me, attempting to reassure me of something which seemed totally impossible.

Rhys Williams, my husband, lay dead beside me, our motionless baby daughter in his arms. A waterfall of tears began to trickle down my cheek as I looked over at them. My focus turned back to Jack as he applied pressure to my wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. I winced in pain at his touch.

I could feel my life draining away within every droplet of the blood rapidly oozing out of me from the huge, gaping stab wound located near my chest. This was it. The end. I could feel it in every inch of my aching, blood covered body. And yet somehow I wanted to die.

Not being able to prevent the continuous flow of tears, I glanced back over at Anwen and Rhys who both lay there looking so peaceful in their everlasting slumber. How could I live without them? I could only only just survive the deaths of Tosh, Owen, and Ianto, but not this. Not my family. Oh God, how could anyone live with this?

It had all happened so quickly. One moment it was all one big happy reunion, the next a horrific blade slashing, gun shooting bloodbath. Why did Jack have to show his face again and ruin everything?! Things seemed to be looking more positive before he turned up again. Sure it was more than great to see his oh-so-handsome face again, but for once Rhys, Anwen and I were safe from all the problems Torchwood had created for us. Nobody and nothing knew we were living in this secluded area by the Welsh coastline. I was sure of it.

Now he had returned, trouble had to. Anwen and Rhys were both dead, and soon I was going to die as well. It was alright for Jack, he'd seen so many people die before that this wasn't anything new for him. He cared for me, I knew that, but he'd also cared for so many others before me. How many times had he brought up any of these people in conversation? How many times had he even thought about anyone from his past? I had came to accept that I was merely just a speck of dust in his never-ending life ages ago, nothing even remotely important in the long time effects. Give it a couple hundred years and he would have moved on. Give it a couple hundred years and he would have forgotten all about me.

I could see it in Jack's eyes that he knew he couldn't do anything to save me. All he could do was stay by my side until the end. He leaned down and whispered into my ear as if he had been reading my thoughts.

"I will never forget about you, Gwen. How will I ever forget you, the bravest, most beautiful woman I have ever seen?"

And then something completely unexpected happened. He kissed me, long and deep, wanting to make the most of our last few moments together and confess all his feelings. A wave of uncontrollable emotions surfaced from deep inside me. I was absolutely devastated over the loss of my husband and child, terrified as I neared death, and furious that Jack had wrecked everything. Yet, I felt the rush of affection, admiration, attraction, and a whole load of other wonderful feelings for the immortal man all surface suddenly in the form of a passionate response to his kiss.

"I love you," he began as he pulled away, tears spilling down his face as he sensed my last breath was near. "I have done ever since I first laid eyes on you."

Before I could respond and tell him all those feelings I had bottled up and hid away for years on end, everything began to blur into a block of darkness as my life slipped away in an agonising wash of blood loss. I never did get to say those three powerful words to Jack - I love you.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **So, here's Chapter 2 (finally!) It only took, what, a week to upload? Sorry about that, I'm just so lazy and it takes me ages to write everything. I hope this chapter is good enough to make up for it being so late. I'm going to try to at least upload one chapter per week, maybe two depending on how much time I have spare from all my school work, so everybody reading this doesn't have to wait toooo long to find out what happens next.

Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter, and again any constructive criticism is more than welcome. :)

* * *

Gwen Cooper woke in a state of panic, sitting bolt upright and wiping away a stream of hot tears which trickled down her cheeks as soon as she regained consciousness from her uncomfortable, horrific sleep. She glanced to her left, upon realising she was at home in her bedroom, and spotted her husband snoring quietly next to her on the comfy bed.

'It was just a nightmare. Thank god.' She said to herself.

After a few moments of inhaling deep calming breaths, Gwen settled back down and attempted to fall back asleep. However, after thirty long minutes of tossing and turning and trying to get comfortable she decided that the chances of falling back to sleep were highly unlikely. She sighed quietly to herself and decided that there was no point in staying in bed if she wasn't going to get to sleep again.

She slipped out of bed, being careful not to wake her beloved husband, snuck across the room, silently opened the bedroom door and stepped out into the dark hallway. The instant she left the room she was hit violently by a freezing cold breeze. A shiver ran down her spine. Almost immediately she could feel that something wasn't right. She peered to her left, and then to her right, and noticed the window on the opposite side of the hallway hung wide open, allowing the icy wind to blow freely into the house.

Didn't she close the window when she put Anwen to bed six hours previously? She was sure Rhys hadn't opened it.. so if he hadn't done it who or what had?

Gwen retreated back into the bedroom to retrieve one of her pistols, a SIG-Saucer P226 to be precise, from a cabinet beside the door and re-emerged into the hallway with it raised. A brief memory of the time she had joined Torchwood ran through her mind. The time when Jack had taught her how to use a gun. The way his soft hands travelled effortlessly down the side of her body as she took aim at one of the multiple targets dotted around in the shooting range deep within The Hub. Another shiver ran down her spine, only this time it wasn't just because she was cold.

Why did she keep thinking about Jack? She had moved to the coast in a rather isolated area after he had left in the hope of staying hidden from anything or anyone who had been tracking down Torchwood, and in hope of forgetting all about Jack and Torchwood for both Rhys' sake and for Anwen's sake. However, it proved impossible to just leave all those wonderful, amazing, and terrifying things she had seen to one side to be left alone and forgotten. She had learnt that from the constant stream of nightmares that never failed to haunt her each night.

The Welsh beauty advanced slowly down the hallway checking every room in turn, scanning every detail with hawk-like eyes searching for any sign of suspicious movement, and proceeded to do so until she had insured the entire upstairs floor was trespasser free. As she reached the open window a strong gust of wind blew at her face, causing her wild, black hair to fly backwards before the cold breeze was stopped dead in it's tracks by the sudden closing of the window. Gwen soundlessly entered her baby daughter's bedroom to check that she was alright and watched her in her tranquil sleep.

Everything seemed fine. No signed of any alien invasion or mass murdering monster. Gwen let out a relieved sigh and assumed that she must have just left the window open by mistake. A sudden creak on the stairs made her heart skip a beat.

Wait, had she missed something? Was someone or something actually in her house? She swore at herself for being stupid enough to forget to check downstairs and decided whoever or whatever the hell was in her house was going to regret stepping foot in her property.

Slowly she edged out of the door and crept towards the staircase. Her hazel brown eyes could just make out the outline of a figure sneaking downstairs in the darkness, it's back appeared to be facing her. At least the figure looked human. Gwen lowered her gun slightly and choose a different approach to the situation. She snuck right up behind the figure and pounced on the figure as soon as she was just a few steps behind it.

"AHHH!" The figure cried out. Gwen instantly recognised the voice.

"Rhys?!" She hopped off his back and dropped her gun. It landed on the carpet floor with a small thud.

"Gwen, love, what are you doing?" Her husband questioned, flicking the switch to the downstairs light as he spoke. Light burst into the room, forcing the ghostly shadows to retreat and cower in a far corner of the downstairs hall.

"Sorry, I thought you could have been.." Gwen started before Rhys pulled her into a hug having already guessed why his wife was acting so strangely.

"I've told you before Gwen, nobody knows we're here," he said, stroking her soft hair. "We're safe now. No more worrying about Torchwood, or any of those idiots looking for us. They'll never find us here."

"But how do you know that for certain? For all we know there could be someone watching us right now!" she frowned and bit her lip. Rhys moved to look at her beautiful face and saw a few tears spill down her cheeks.

"I can guarantee that nobody's watching us, love," he kissed the top of her head and she wiped away the couple of tears that had managed to trickle down her face.

"If you say so," she replied quietly. "Why were you going downstairs anyway?"

"I was looking for you. I woke up and saw you'd left. Are you alright, Gwen?" he said looking into her eyes. "Was it another nightmare?"

Gwen nodded and the water works started all over again as her mind recounted the haunting events of her terrible dream.

"There, there, it's alright, love. It's all over now. How about I make you a nice cup of tea and see if we have any biscuits left in the tin?" Rhys said, trying to make her feel better unaware that he was talking to her as though she was a little child. She forced a faint smile and nodded. As Rhys waddled off in the direction of the kitchen, Gwen walked into the living room and switched on the light. She perched on a seat furthest away from but facing the window which looked out at the house's small, wild garden so she could keep watch of everything outside. Just beyond the old stone wall and grassy slopes, the moonlight flooded beach appeared to stretch out for miles, further than the human eye could see, setting the illusion of pure isolation from the rest of the world.

Gwen let out a long breath. Why was she constantly so paranoid? Rhys was right, wasn't he?`Nobody knew they were here, right? They were in the middle of nowhere for goodness sake! But what if there was somebody out there just watching and waiting for the right moment to burst into the house and attack? Even if there wasn't anybody out there who had found them at that particular moment in time, what would happen when the time did come and somebody managed to track her down? Where would she go? Where was a suitable location that was safe? Who could she trust? And what if something happened to Anwen when they got found? What would she do then?

And why was she letting these dreams get to her so much? After all they were only nightmares, they weren't real, she'd always wake up to find everything was fine. It was not like she hadn't had nightmares before all this had started. They never got to her as much as these ones had. So why was it that these ones had such a powerful impact on her? Too many questions ran through her mind and her head began to ache slightly.

'Hang on. What was that?' Gwen thought to herself. An usual movement just beyond the garden gate had caught her attention while she was staring out of the wide window directly opposite her. "Please tell me that was just my imagination," she said to herself.

"What?" Gwen tore her gaze away from the window to see that Rhys had appeared at the doorway holding two mugs of boiling hot tea, one mug in each hand. "Oh, and we're all out of biscuits I'm afraid. Remind me to by some more next time we go shopping," he added.

"I thought I saw something move out there," she glanced back over at the window.

"It was probably just the wind blowing the plants around or something," Rhys suggested. Gwen didn't look so convinced. "Stop being so worried all the time. Just relax. Like I said earlier, nobody knows we're here and nobody is watching the house."

"I know, I know... It's just these nightmares. They seem so real, each and everyone of them, and I just can't help thinking what if? What if one day all these dreams become reality? What if you, me and Anwen end up dead? Everything seems so..." she paused for a moment trying to think of the right word to use before continuing, "perfect at the moment, to good to be true, like nothing can go wrong, like everything will always be fine. But how long is that going to last for, Rhys? Think about it. We are hiding from God knows who and how many, surely somebody has tracked us down already? How long will it be before we have people knocking on the door, or knocking down the door for that matter, looking for us? Wanting to use us for information? Kill us? Anything!"

Rhys placed the two mugs down on the oak coffee table and sat down next to his wife who was now uncontrollably shaking with tears. "Then we make the most of what perfect time we have. Right here and right now is all that matters, and right now everything is good. For once in a long while now I feel safe. I feel like we're just a normal family living a normal, happy life," he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. "I know how terrifying this can be, and I understand why you're so paranoid, but all of this is in the past now. We need to move on. If somebody does come by and find us then we deal with the problem then. Let's just make the most of the good stuff, yeah?"

As the couple sat there in each others arms, a strange shadow finished watching the house for the night and disappeared off into the darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Sorry this story is taking so long to update. I'm a really slow writer and I've had so much to do lately as well. But don't worry, I'm half way through my next chapter already so hopefully it will be updated sooner rather than later.

Also I would like to thank everybody who has reviewed and/or added this fanfiction to their favourites! In particular a massive thank you to christine-liddle-397 for leaving a lovely paragraph in the reviews! :)

* * *

The sky began to take on the appearance of multicoloured candy floss as the thin, fluffy clouds slowly parted to make way for the sun which silently slid above the skyline. Shades of pinks, oranges and blues were carelessly smudged across the sky, merged into one another in a splash of disturbed colour as the golden sunlight started to brighten up the sky. The sea shimmered several shades of blue creating an image of thousands of twinkling sapphires each shifting in perfect harmony with one another.

Gwen had been sitting outside for a while now just watching the waves roll further away down the beach as daybreak arrived. It was cold outside, but that didn't bother her. She just needed to be away from the house for a while.

Anwen had been crying for most of the early morning hours and when a sleep deprived Gwen had tried and failed for an hour to calm her daughter down, she began to get a rather nasty head ache and eventually gave up trying entirely, leaving Rhys to sort out everything. Of course, Anwen had stopped crying by the time her mother had left the room and her father walked in with her favourite teddy bear. Typical.

Sometimes Gwen just needed a break from everything. Free from worry and free from screaming babies at half three in the morning. This was why she decided to go for a walk.

Initially, she was only going to be gone for a small amount of time, ten minutes at the very most, just long enough for a breath of fresh air to clear her head, but she had got whisked away in her train of thought and had found herself walking non-stop until her legs began to ache.

She now sat on a patch of soft, golden sand, miles away from everything and everyone. She took in a deep breath of the cool air. Peace at last.

Only her mind started playing tricks on her. She could see strange lights in the distance, bobbing up and down in the shimmering waves, resembling the embers of a twirling fire. Paranoia spread throughout her mind. What were those lights? Was someone there? Was somebody watching her?

"No Gwen, you're just being stupid. It's just your imagination. Nothing is there," she said to herself out loud. She tried to look away but her eyes wouldn't shift. They were fixed on the deep red lights which now appeared to rapidly grow bigger, brighter, like they were getting closer.

Almost automatically she reached to her side, reaching for her gun, but it wasn't there. Realisation suddenly hit her: she had left it back at home.

'Damn it!' she thought. Why hadn't she remembered to bring it with her? She mentally screamed at herself for leaving something so important so far away. At what point had she decided that it would be a good idea to walk a thousand bloody miles away from home leaving her main means of defence behind anyway?

"You're so bloody stupid sometimes," again she spoke out loud to herself.

"Not the kind of welcome I was expecting," came a voice from behind her. "..but I'll take it anyway."

Gwen whirled around at the sound of the voice.

"Jack?" As she turned she saw him standing there, trench coat billowing out behind him in the wind. He watched her as she stood up. After a short moment passed she threw her arms around him and hugged him as tightly as possible. Jack hugged her back, equally as tight.

Gwen couldn't control herself and let all her emotions go at once. Happy tears began to trickle down her face and anger boiled her blood. She pulled away from the hug and slapped his arm as hard as she could.

"Don't you ever run off again, ok?" And with that she leaned up and kissed him. She didn't know what she was doing, she wasn't in control of her emotions and had given into the sudden urge to kiss the man standing in front of her.

Lost in the kiss, Gwen had forgotten all about the creature silently watching her in the depths of the sea. A big mistake.

Fire suddenly flew towards them both at lighting quick speed. They both fell to the ground in a white hot burst of pain. Gwen let out an agonising scream as the flames pierced her skin, tearing through it effortlessly allowing hot blood to gush out.

Beside her, Captain Jack Harkness was rolling around like crazy trying to extinguish the raging flames he had to do battle with. He had also cried out when him and Gwen had been suddenly set on fire but this wasn't the worst situation he'd ever been in, definitely not the most painful anyway, so he handled the situation more calmly than Gwen, even if he did let out a few small screams of pain.

Still screaming, Gwen also began to roll around. She would have ran into the water if it wasn't so far away – she'd never make it in time and would have just burnt to death if she tried that. Either way she was going to die and she could feel it.

* * *

A short shake on her shoulder woke her up. As Gwen forced her eyes open she saw Rhys kneeling beside her and a sleeping Anwen nestled in her pram beside him. Of course it was another nightmare.

"Gwen? What the bloody hell are you doing down there?" Rhys' soft voice echoed in her ears.

"What? I just.. I must have.." she started, unsure of what to say. She had not gone far at all when she'd left the house earlier. In fact, she hadn't even made it out of the garden before collapsing. This had been happening a lot.

"Come on, let's get you up," Rhys reached for her arm and helped lift her up onto her feet. He looked over at Anwen then back to Gwen and spoke again. "We were just going to go look for you. You've been gone for about two hours and I was starting to get worried. Thought something might have happened to you."

"No, no, I'm fine," Gwen replied looking uneasily towards the beach expecting to see a pair of red lights or a burning ball of fire racing towards her. There was nothing there except for a couple of seagulls which had just landed on the waves.

"Yeah, you look it," he replied in a sarcastic but concerned tone. Gwen looked back at Rhys without saying a word. An awkward silence between the pair was shattered when Gwen finally said something.

"God my head hurts. Do we have any pain killers left?"

"Don't think so. Think you had the last of them the other day," he shrugged. "Well Anwen's ready to go out now anyway, so I could take her and drive to the shop to pick you up some paracetamol if you want? I'll do the shopping while I'm at it. You just go inside, get in bed and make the most of the peace and quiet, yeah?"

"Alright," Gwen hugged him.

"Don't I get a proper thank you?" He smiled, hugging her back.

Gwen returned the smile and kissed him. "Rhys Williams, you are amazing! What would I ever do without you?"

"That's more like it," Rhys laughed and walked over to the pram. "I'll see you in a bit, love."

They kissed again before he walked down the garden path and out of the gate, making his way towards the car with his sleeping daughter. Gwen watched him place the pram in the boot of the car and secure Anwen carefully in the back seat before climbing into the car himself and driving off along the dirt road.

She spun around and shuffled back into the house. Had she really been asleep outside for two hours?! Had she really dreamed about Jack? Again?

Damn that man! Why was it always him in her dreams? She never dream't of any other members of the Torchwood team, it was always just Jack. Occasionally Anwen and Rhys were involved, and they always ended up dead, but every night without fail Jack would somehow find his way into her dreams. And then they would kiss.

What the hell was up with that?! Had she finally gone insane because of this man? Had she gone insane for this man? It really always was only a matter of time before she was tipped over the edge ever since she began to work for him. Had Torchwood finally managed to turn her crazy, or was it just Jack?

She took off her shoes in the hall and began to walk upstairs. It wasn't like she was actually going to get any sleep but at least it was somewhere comfortable for her to rest her head in the meantime.

By now her head was in so much pain Gwen thought it was going to explode. She reached the top of the wooden stairs and began to walk to her room. Clutching her head, she pushed open the bedroom door and let herself fall onto the bed. She lay motionless in the same position she had fallen in for a few long minutes.

The peace was shattered from a loud knock from downstairs.

Somebody was at the door.

Gwen leapt up from the warm comfort of blankets and pillows and quickly reached for her pistol on the bedside table. She checked it was loaded before swiftly exiting the room and sneaking downstairs. The door knocked again. Should she open it or should she leave it? Surely Rhys wasn't back already?

Knock knock.

Gwen moved closer to the door. Her head hurt more than ever now and she desperately wanted to lay down. Her hand lingered at the handle waiting for her brain to signal it to open the door. A few moments passed and eventually she swung it open, gun hidden behind her back, and gasped.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Please except my biggest apologies for this chapter being a month late. I was originally going to finish and upload this a couple of days after my previous chapter but then I got the flu and was ill for about two weeks. Then there was the stress and studying for tests for the last couple weeks of the school term and just general things that have kept me busy for ages. :(  
Anyway, here's chapter 4, I really hope you like it and that this chapter was worth the wait.  
Sorry for any OOCness by the way!

* * *

Gwen wasn't unconscious for very long. She woke to find herself on a couch in the living room with a dark blue blanket from upstairs draped neatly on top of her. Her head was still pounding in pain but surprisingly, she realised, it hurt less than before.

Gwen sat up slowly wondering how she managed to get on the sofa. The last few moments before she fainted were just a blurry mess in her mind and she couldn't make sense of any of it.

The house was silent apart from the occasional chirp from the birds outside and the ticking of the clocks which were hung up on the walls. And then she heard footsteps coming from the hallway. Surely Rhys wasn't back already, so who the hell was in her house?

Perhaps she was dreaming again? That would explain the light headedness. Then again, she had just fainted so she was bound to feel like this anyway, right? But that still didn't explain why she had been moved onto the couch.

If this was a nightmare, she decided, she was going to be prepared properly this time. Gwen pushed the soft blanket to one side and swung both of her legs over the side of the couch, grabbing her gun which lay on the coffee table in front of her before standing up.

As Gwen rose, somebody entered the living room. At first she didn't notice the man who had soundlessly walked into the room as her gaze was fixed on something outside the window, but after a few long seconds passed she realised that there was a figure standing opposite her which shouldn't be in her house. She held up her gun and aimed at him. It was clear that she wasn't happy that this man had come into her house.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She snapped at him.

Captain Jack Harkness took a step towards her. "What I want to know is why are you aiming a gun at my head?"

Gwen didn't reply and kept her position, intent on getting an answer out of him. Jack took another step forward. Gwen spoke again when Jack didn't answer her question. "Why are you here, Jack?"

"Why are you pointing a gun at me?" He asked again. Gwen figured that perhaps if she lowered her weapon then he would answer her question properly. She was still unsure about whether or not this was nightmare or reality, but figured if she stopped aiming at him then he might actually tell her something.

"Fine," she gave in and placed the pistol back onto the coffee table, never taking her eyes off of Jack. "But don't try anything stupid."

"For a moment there I was worried that you would accidentally pulled the trigger," Jack said as Gwen stared half angry and half confused at him. "That would have been a nasty amount of blood you'd of had to clean up."

"Yeah, well.." Gwen started to respond but then stopped mid-sentence. Why wasn't he kissing her? Where was the alien about to kill her? Perhaps this wasn't a nightmare after all.

"Well?" Jack repeated after her.

"Never mind," she responded, eyes still trained on him.

"Well I'm curious now," Jack said back, also watching her, "why were you aiming a gun at me?"

"It's a long story," Gwen sighed slightly as she answered.

"I've got all day," Jack replied still wanting to know why one of his closest friends was acting in such a strange way.

"Why are you so concerned all of a sudden anyway?" It was clear to Jack that Gwen was far from happy with him for whatever reason he was about to find out, although he had a feeling he already knew what she was about to say. "One moment it's all 'I'm leaving you forever' and the next moment it's all 'let's go see how Gwen's doing'. Do you understand how mixed up I feel right now?"

Jack opened his mouth to speak but quickly closed it again. Oh how he'd missed the Welsh woman's temper. She looked even prettier when she was angry, Jack decided.

"No, you don't, do you? Of course you bloody don't! You can just come and go as you please! Disappear off to some planet a million miles away from Earth, leaving the ones who care for you behind wondering when you'd next be back. Or if you'd ever come back! You broke my heart when you left! I thought you were gone for good!"

"So you missed me?" Jack finally spoke up. He could have sworn Gwen had blushed a little when he asked her this question.

"Yes," Gwen said and looked away from him. "Yes, I did miss you."

"I missed you too," Gwen looked back up as the immortal man spoke to her in a soft voice.

"Yeah, I guessed that from all the times you bothered yourself to visit," she replied sarcastically.

"It was complicated, Gwen. If I could have visited before I would have, but I couldn't," Jack looked into her eyes. Again Gwen looked away from him.

"Yeah, right.. Why are you here? What's brought you back all of a sudden? Because I swear if you've brought a bunch of aliens to my doorstep that'll put my daughter in danger I will kill you. Anwen her name is, since you didn't ask."

"Gwen, I came back.." Jack was interrupted by the sound of the front door unlocking and opening. Rhys had returned with four bags of shopping in one hand and a snoozing Anwen in her pram being wheeled inside by the other. As he walked into the room his mouth gaped open.

"Oh bloody hell, it's you!" Rhys was shocked at the sight of Captain Jack. He had never expected Jack to return after everything that had happened a few months previous.

"Rhys, nice to see you again," Jack turned away from an enraged Gwen and smiled at her husband who was standing there open mouthed like a goldfish. Gwen turned her frown to a slight smile at the sight of her daughter who had just begun to wake up.

"Hello sweetie!" Gwen walked over to the pram and cooed at Anwen. She lifted her from the straps that bound her to the pram and up into her loving arms.

"She's a beautiful," Jack grinned at the mother and daughter.

"Ah, thanks. She definitely takes after her mother," Rhys smiled back at Jack before turning to face Gwen. "How's your head, love?"

"A bit better, thanks. Did you get those pain killers?" Gwen looked over at him.

"Yep, here you go." Rhys nodded and produced a packet out of one of the pale shopping bags in his hand. Gwen placed Anwen back down gently and took the pain killers from his hand.

"Thank you. Oh you are a life saver!" She kissed him softly and then disappeared into the kitchen to get a glass of water to take the pain killers with.

"What's wrong with Gwen's head?" Jack asked out of concern.

"Just a headache. She's been getting them a lot lately," Rhys sighed. "Do you think you could keep an eye on her while I put the shopping away?" He looked down at Anwen. Jack nodded and Rhys smiled in return. "Thanks, mate."

As Rhys followed his wife into the kitchen with the shopping bags in hand, Jack knelt down in front of Anwen who looked up at him and giggled. He noted that the infant had her mother's gorgeous eyes and sweet little smile.

"Your father was right, you definitely take after your mother," Jack said quietly to her. "And I bet you'll grow up to be one of the most beautiful women to ever walk this planet, just like her. Your father is a very lucky man to have both you and her."

Between the giggles of Anwen, Jack could make out the small sound of shuffling from behind him. He turned on the spot to see that Gwen had appeared at the doorway. He gulped and stood up.

"..How long have you been standing there for exactly?" He hoped she hadn't heard his one way conversation with her daughter.

"Long enough," Gwen smirked, secretly over-delighted about how he had described her. "One of the most beautiful women to ever walk this planet?"

Jack gulped again. "Yeah.. Rhys said you have a headache?"

Gwen noticed the sudden change of topic and felt slightly disappointed by it, but answered his question anyway. "Yeah, it's bloody horrible. Still, nothing pain killers and rest can't sort out.." She looked down, thinking about how much she wanted to have a good night's sleep. "Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to go for a walk with me? I could really do with getting out of this house for a bit."

Captain Jack nodded. "Alright."

"I'll just give this little one to her daddy and we can leave," Gwen smiled and took her baby daughter out of her pram again and into the kitchen where Rhys was busy packing away the last of the shopping. Placing her down in her high-chair, Gwen glanced up at her husband. "I'm just going out for a walk with Jack. I won't be long, we just need to talk."

"Yeah, it's fine. Take all the time you need," Rhys didn't mind how long she took. He understood how good a friend Jack was to Gwen and he understood that she needed to catch up with him.

"Love you," Gwen walked up to him and placed a kiss upon his lips. Rhys returned the kiss and, after a short while, Gwen pulled away and left to get Jack.

She found him in the hallway looking at one of the framed photographs of the family of three on the wall. Gwen stood next to him.

"That was taken after I came back from hospital after I had Anwen. It seems like such a long time since then. Five days after you left, I had her," Gwen sighed and Jack glanced up at her. "Shall we go then?"


	5. Chapter 5

They had been walking together in silence along the wide stretch of beach for at least ten minutes before either of them spoke. It was Gwen who spoke first out of guilt of her reaction to Jack's sudden appearance half an hour previous. She quietly apologised to him, not wanting to completely ruin the tranquility of the walk so far.

Jack nodded understandingly. "I've had worse things happen to me the past few years. Having a gun aimed at my head is one of the less extreme events that have happened. Try being stabbed a couple hundred times by a pissed off barman and a pen. Wasn't the greatest of days. So yeah, it's fine, don't worry about it."

"I really am sorry. I just felt like everything was too good to be true and.." She paused in mid-sentence, glancing up at him as she did so. "How long has it been since you left?"

"Only a few hundred years, not a long time at all. Although it felt like forever," Jack looked down at her. "It was the worst decisions of my life leaving you alone like that."

"I wasn't alone, I had Rhys," Gwen replied a little too quickly.

"You know what I mean," Jack sighed. There was another long moment of silence between them as they walked hand-in-hand across the sand. A cool gust of air blew at them causing Jack's dark trench coat to billow out behind him as he walked and Gwen's black hair to fly out of place.

"Do anything nice while you were gone?" Again Gwen spoke, finally getting tired of the rather awkward silence and giving into the urge to make him speak again just so that she could hear the voice which sent electrifying shivers down her spine and made her heart feel like it had tripled in speed each time she heard it.

"Well, there was this one guy who was very nice.. Actually make that three guys and a part-cyborg woman with really bad fashion taste," Jack laughed.

"I should have known," Gwen giggled in response.

He let out another laugh before returning his own questions. "What about you? How have you been?"

"Well, let me see, I've had to keep a low profile ever since you left, I've gone through child birth which was absolutely painful, but it was so worthwhile so it's not all bad, I've had to move away from my flat in Cardiff, and keep out of contact with just about all my friends and family. On top of that I've been on red alert each and every bloody day and night paranoid that some stupid alien or the Government would come blundering into my home all guns blazing, worrying about Anwen and how she's supposed to grow up like this, and the times I do get some sleep I end up waking up five minutes after having ridiculous nightmares about death and suffering. But apart from all that, I suppose I've been fine." Gwen sighed. The smile was wiped from Captain Jack's face almost instantly.

"Gwen, tell me about these nightmares," Jack stopped walking and spoke to Gwen firmly, placing his hands on her shoulders. Gwen stood still beside him some what shocked at the sudden change in his tone. Thoughts traversed in his mind. Were the nightmares just a coincidence, or was this the same thing he'd seen happen to one of his previous lovers? Perhaps he was just paranoid, worried that since after the last time he'd met somebody having nightmares the same dreadful thing that had happened to them would happen to Gwen.

"What? Why?" She peered up at him with panic stricken eyes. Did he know something about the nightmares that she didn't?

"Just tell me, Gwen. What happens in these nightmares?" He studied her expression as he spoke. Great, now he'd gotten Gwen all worried too. But he had to know if it was the same as last time. He had to be certain Gwen was safe.

Gwen quickly decided that she didn't want to know anything after all as whatever Jack was possibly hiding from her she knew couldn't be good news. Glancing away, she replied quietly, hoping that he'd let her change the subject. "Can't we talk about something else?"

"No. I need to know," Jack replied looking at her. "This could be important."

"Do I have to tell you everything?" As she turned her gaze back to Jack, Gwen felt herself blush a little, thinking about all the encounters and embraces she'd had with the man standing in front of her in her dreams. She didn't want to tell Jack about any of that.

"Yes!" Jack locked eyes with Gwen. She silently prayed for him to not notice the change in colour of her face.

"Fine.." Gwen gave in, figuring that maybe he knew how to stop her bad dreams. There wasn't much point in arguing with him either as she knew he'd win anyway if he really wanted to. Perhaps she could just skip out the parts where her and Jack had kissed in her nightmares so that left behind only the parts about being blown to pieces, or hacked to death, or shot in the head? She sighed and continued.

"..Well they always start out happy. Rhys is there, occasionally so is Anwen, and sometimes other people too, nobody you would know.. It's usually just normal things going on, kissing Rhys, fussing over Anwen, and going for walks on the beach with them both. But then suddenly we're all laying there bleeding to death. There's blood everywhere. And it all feels so real. Each time I die in my dreams it feels like I'm dying in reality... There's this creature that keeps appearing too.." She started before Jack cut in with another question.

"What does it look like?" He still had his eyes trained on her's as he spoke. Even in the serious situation Gwen still felt giddy by his gaze, like she was about to faint from the butterflies in her stomach. Forgetting to reply, she found herself getting lost in his eyes.

He'd seen so much. So much life, so much death, so much love. He'd seen and felt unimaginable amounts of sadness, anger, happiness, love, jealousy, and fear. He'd lived for so long and had done so much. He could choose any time to live in, any place in the Universe to travel to, anybody to spend his time with, and yet here he was standing right in front of her. She thought that he'd given up with her all those months ago, but she was wrong. Even after hundreds of years travelling, Jack had still returned to her.

Gwen forced herself to snap out of her almost trance like mood to remind herself that being with this man was impossible. Not only would he outlive her and would have to watch her grow old and die, she had Rhys and Anwen to think of.

She couldn't just leave them. And even if she did, she didn't want to die and be forgotten by her lover either. How long before Jack got bored and left Earth, and her, again? How old would he want to see her get before he couldn't bear to see her age anymore or lost interest in her? She couldn't risk her life with Rhys for this man. She would never do so.. Or would she? Could she?

It could work out between them. Maybe they could travel the stars together and leave Earth behind? With all the alien tech out there perhaps they could find a machine to keep her young and alive forever. Or perhaps they could find something to turn Jack mortal so the two of them could grow old together? They could have a life together. Maybe a child too?

Yet again Gwen found herself snapping out of her fantasy thoughts. What was she doing?! How could she think so selfishly? How could she think like that about her best friend? More to the point, how could she think as though Anwen and Rhys were so unimportant to her? Anwen was her life, her world, her everything, and so was her husband. It wasn't the first time she'd thought like this either.

A wave of guilt washed over her making her feel deeply ashamed of herself. Is this what her life had come to? Crushing and fantasizing like an out of control teenager willing to give up everything and anything for the man that she had a stupid little crush on? Of course, it was just a stupid crush. It wasn't like she was in love with Jack or anything. No, certainly not. She was in love with Rhys and always would be, even if she did have to remind herself that each time she saw Jack...

Pure silence and a strange, half-confused look was all Jack had got as a reply, as if he'd just spoken something in French and she was trying to figure out what he was trying to say. At first Jack thought it was because she didn't want to answer his question which slightly annoyed him but mostly concerned him. What could be so bad that she couldn't tell him?

"Gwen! Tell me. I need to know! What does it look like?" Jack spoke louder and clearer trying to figure out what the woman in front of him was thinking, trying to search her eyes for a clue to what was going on inside her head. Eventually she replied, far quieter than before.

"I, er.. I don't know... Hard to think when all that's in my head is y-" Gwen trailed off, realising what she was about to say. How could she be so stupid? She cleared her throat and spoke again, louder this time, correcting her mistake as she came back to reality.

"It's different each time, but I'm sure it's the same creature. Sometimes it's human, other times it resembles carnivorous animals." Gwen wondered whether she was making any sense to Jack or whether she just sounded slightly crazy. Jack nodded a little, an action she recognised as a gesture that she should continue.

"There's always this strange blackness surrounding it, like it's glowing, only giving out darkness instead of light. It's weird. I don't know how to explain it properly." She finished, hoping he understood and knew at least a little bit about what was going on.

Jack Harkness tried not to show his panic. To begin with there were a million different life forms he could think of which could have been behind everything. Millions of aliens could use telepathic links to tamper with Gwen's dreams and thoughts. Some were completely harmless, others more deadly. Then she spoke of different appearances, which narrowed it down slightly but not by much. Too many shape shifting, telepathic aliens out there, so yet again there were far too many possibilities. But the darkness was something that could single everything down to three possible life forms. Three incredibly dangerous life forms. One life form in particular sprung to mind.

But the creature wasn't the thing he was panicking most about. It was the effects on Gwen he feared the most. He'd seen all this before. Gwen's description of the creature was almost identical to the one he had heard before. No, wait, now he thought more about it he'd heard about it much more than once. Just people he'd met. People he'd grown closer to than others. They'd all mentioned 'darkness' at some point, but he didn't think much of it. Their deaths he just shook off as a sorrowful coincidence, only now he could see that there was a connection. And it only took a few months for the effects to start working. Only a few months until...

No, he wasn't going to let that happen again. Not to her. Not to Gwen. Not to _his_ Gwen. He'd lost everybody already, whether it be his team or just other people he'd met and cared for. He wasn't prepared to lose Gwen either. Not the woman he cared for the most.


End file.
